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In 2001, Lockheed Martin(NYSE:LMT) won a stunning victory over its archrival in fighter jets, The Boeing Company. The Pentagon would award Lockheed Martin the right to build F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marines (and for our allies) for the next 60 years.

Earlier this month, the same Pentagon that bestowed upon Lockheed a trillion-dollar franchise to build America's "last manned fighter" plane suggested it now may cut this franchise short, putting potentially trillions of revenue dollars at risk.

If you're a Lockheed Martin shareholder -- or even just a follower of the F-35 story in general -- you owe it to yourself to find out what's going on. In the short slideshow below, we'll lay it all out for you. Take a quick look now, and make sure to tune back in at the end for our special free report.

Rich Smith does not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him on Motley Fool CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handle TMFDitty, where he's currently ranked No. 338 out of more than 75,000 rated members.

Author

I like things that go "boom." Sonic or otherwise, that means I tend to gravitate towards defense and aerospace stocks. But to tell the truth, over the course of a dozen years writing for The Motley Fool, I have covered -- and continue to cover -- everything from retailers to consumer goods stocks, and from tech to banks to insurers as well. Follow me on Twitter or Facebook for the most important developments in defense & aerospace news, and other great stories besides.